


The Anniversary

by cordeliadelayne



Category: Primeval
Genre: First Time, Getting Together, Light Voyeurism, M/M, More than one Cutter, More than one Stephen, Office Sex, Time Travel Shenanigans, Timey-Wimey, seeing into the future
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-31
Updated: 2016-05-31
Packaged: 2018-07-11 07:08:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7035040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cordeliadelayne/pseuds/cordeliadelayne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cutter and Stephen visit the future.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Anniversary

**Author's Note:**

  * For [telperion_15](https://archiveofourown.org/users/telperion_15/gifts).



> Written as a Christmas present for the lovely telperion_15 who gave me the prompt “a dance to the music of time”. Set early in series 2.
> 
> Originally posted to Livejournal in 2009.

“I can’t believe this,” Cutter repeated for the third time. Stephen tried to hold back from rolling his eyes and went to stand next to him.

“Cutter, this is hardly the weirdest thing we’ve ever seen through an anomaly.”

“But – but it’s _us._ ”

“Yeah,” Stephen whispered. “I know.”

They continued to look on in silence, down at the atrium of the ARC, where another Cutter and another Stephen were talking to another Connor and another Abby. They could tell that they were them, even though they were considerably older, the other Cutter using a cane to walk around, Connor being pushed around in a wheelchair by Abby. But the friendship, the camaraderie, the _love_ , that was still more than evident in the team.

It made Stephen’s heart ache.

Cutter too looked crestfallen as he watched Stephen and then the others below. And when the other Cutter placed an arm around the other Stephen’s waist and drew him close, it proved too much.

“This is ridiculous.”

Stephen turned to face Cutter but didn’t otherwise react.

“Don’t you think it’s ridiculous?” Cutter asked him, when it became evident that Stephen wasn’t going to say anything.

“Which part?”

Cutter sighed and dragged his hand through his hair. “We’re not…you’re not, I’m not…look. This is…”

“Ridiculous. Yeah, I got that part,” Stephen replied. “They certainly look happy.”

Cutter turned his back on the other them and started to walk towards what in their time would have been Lester’s office, but which now belonged to an equally snooty woman by the name of Zoe Braithwaite. She had been watching them like they were nothing particularly special or remarkable, and it was really starting to annoy Cutter. How could everyone possibly be taking this so calmly?

“What exactly is it you want me to do, Professor?” Zoe asked before he had fully entered the room. “We were all set for the ARC’s 50th anniversary party when you two showed up. Not a match for your photos, if you don’t mind me saying.”

“I want to – our what?”

Zoe stood up and pressed a few buttons on her wall that turned the whole area into a computer screen which then flicked into a photo album that Cutter could clearly see contained only photos of him and his team. The tenth photo that flicked through was of him and Stephen and it was there that Zoe paused it. They looked older, though not as old as the other one’s he’d already encountered (and by now his brain was really starting to hurt) and they were both wearing wedding rings. Matching wedding rings.

“My team are already working on sending you back to the exact moment, give or take, that you came from. It should only take them half an hour or so.”

Cutter turned to her in astonishment. “You can do that now?”

Zoe smiled and Cutter was forcibly reminded of his ex-wife’s own smile. “We can do a lot of things these days, Professor. ARC operations is fully funded by the European Parliament and we have bases throughout the world. In fact our Head of Science believes she’s very close to finding a way to ending the phenomenon once and for all.”

Cutter’s mouth had dropped open slightly and now he slowly closed it. “So, there is hope?”

Zoe leaned forward and patted him on the arm. “There’s always hope, Professor.” She looked over at Stephen who had been standing in the doorway, his gaze never leaving the picture of him and Cutter together, smiling and staring into each other’s eyes. “Why don’t you join us? There’s cake.”

“Is that a good idea? Won’t that cause the fabric of space and time to disintegrate?” Stephen asked with a grin.

“Stephen’s right, best not risk it.”

Zoe nodded. “As you wish. There are tea things over there, and I’ll have one of the staff bring you up some food. Now, gentlemen, if you’ll excuse me.”

She slipped out of the door by Stephen and headed down to the Atrium where her team was waiting for her.

Cutter turned to look at Stephen who was still staring at their picture.

“I’m sorry,” Cutter said.

“What for?” asked Stephen, brow crinkling in confusion. “You don’t have anything to apologise for. I’m the one -”

“You’re the one who tried to make things right, and I threw it back in your face,” Cutter interrupted. “I seem to have been doing that a lot lately.”

Stephen stepped closer to Cutter. “But it all must pan out, otherwise…” He pointed to the picture and Cutter sighed.

“What if this is just one possible future? We do one thing differently and it all evaporates?”

Stephen shrugged. “Then we make sure our future is what we want it to be.” Cutter blinked hard as Stephen moved even closer to him. “We spend far too much of our time being dictated to by others. By Lester, Helen, the anomalies. We need to take control. Take what we want for ourselves.”

Cutter gulped. “And what, what is it that you want?”

Stephen tilted his head slightly. “Hopefully the same thing you do.”

And then, before he allowed himself a single flicker of doubt, he was pressing his lips against Cutter’s, groaning as Cutter opened his mouth and responded, pulling Stephen close towards him. They stumbled together, arms around waists and under shirts until they fell to the floor, Cutter knocking the wind out of Stephen.

“Sorry, sorry -” Cutter began but Stephen just pulled him back in for another kiss, and thoughts of apologies were the last thing on either of their minds.

Downstairs, Zoe was talking to the other Cutter and Stephen who were gazing wistfully up at her office.

“I don’t suppose I want to know what those two are doing in there, do I?”

The other Stephen grinned. “Not unless you want to know the precise part of your office we first had sex in.”

“Or what piece of furniture we did it against the second time,” the other Cutter added.

Zoe shook her head. “I can see why Prime Minister Lester took office instead of continuing at the ARC. It was probably quieter.”

The other Cutter and Stephen didn’t really have anything to say to that. Especially not when they realised that the other Connor had been busily hacking into the CCTV cameras, and _everybody_ saw far more of two of the revered founders of the ARC than they were comfortable with.

Though when the younger Stephen and Cutter finally left for home an hour later, dishevelled but happy, they did make sure to ask for copies.

And Connor didn’t stop blushing for days.


End file.
